Night of the Falling Star
by Lightning-Dono
Summary: Ash is dead. Team Rocket has resigned. Meowth is now in the posession of Cassidy and Butch. Misty? She's trying to get revenge. [Ch. 3 - Mute Confessions]
1. Falling Star

**Lightning-Dono**: Angst, anyone? This one is one that WILL be finished, being only a few chapters long.

**Night of the Falling Star ****  
Author**: Lightning-Dono AKA Lightning-Chan**  
Recommended Age Group**: Teen  
Mistycouldn't get anyone to love her until now, when a stubborn, Pokemon trainer amateur came her way. It's been years since she met him on that fateful day, but why has fate taken him away?

-

Gunshots showered the air with sparks and smoke. Misty had dove behind a brick wall. While it might not hold as long, she needed to shelter herself from the raging battle outside. _He wouldn't want me hurt._ She thought selfishly in an attempt to convince herself that the one person she had always loved would be all right. Then again, lying and playing wicked mind games with herself never aided anyone.

Fire exploded around her, the sound of screaming rang through her eardrums. It didn't take her long to discover that the only one screaming now was her, her vocal cords strained so hard she felt like they were going to snap.

Cold-blooded, shrill laughter rang through the air. The feeling of impending pandemonium spread fiercely through the cold rush of wind that was followed by a single voice, speaking directly to her. It was a victory-swollen tone that poisoned her blood, just hearing his words.

"I have taken what is most precious to your lover," James vocalized throatily, a bony hand gripping Misty's shivering shoulder, squeezing it with contempt, as though to crush her very bones.

"What have you done?" Misty screamed at him, purged of her once over-whelming fear. "What have you done to Ash?"

Jessie's sharp, joyous laugh came, echoing around the abandoned plaza that belonged seemingly in a ghost movie. The streets had been deserted for months, save for a Pokemon Center that was often closed, due to lack of visitors to this old, forlorn town.

"You'll have to come out and see, won't you now, little girl?" She cackled.

With all the rage in her mind powering her muscles, Misty headed steadily towards the area infront of her protective brick wall. The first thing she cast her eyes on was the excessive stain of dark red splattered across the dusty cement. Although it was night, she could tell exactly what substance that was, and the more she thought of it, the more images appeared in her head.

"Ash will be _fine_," she told herself aloud, despite Team Rocket's ongoing jeering that drove her a crack over the edge.

"So," James started.

"Do you see you boy?" Jessie finished, her voice growing exceedingly taunting.

A hat that was filled with holes. Bullet holes. And what sent the jolt through Misty's heart was that it wasn't just any random hat that had been left to be forgotten. It was _Ash_'s hat...and he would never leave his precious accessory behind. Treading carefully, she the trail of filthy blood that had spewed messily across the ground. She grew queasy, her stomach turning like it had the first time she had seen a shooting star while sitting in the solitude of night, Ash watching over her carefully from the boughs of a tree...spying on her.

"Oh my God," she whispered, hands clamped tightly over her mouth. Tears filled her eyes that bore the resemblance of diamond-cut lapis luzi. Misty's breathing was rapid, the light dimming from her eyes as they misted over with a fog of death.

There was Ash – lying there, bleeding to death. He was clutching his upper arm in hurt, moaning in obscure pain, voice muffled by a cloth that had been vindictively wrapped around his mouth to muffle his cries. His clothes were ragged from dragging himself across the ground, slowly making his way towards a Pokemon center that shed it's light over most of the town from it's size. Dirt stung his wounds a freckled his smooth face.

Dropping to her knees, tears falling freely, heart jerking rapidly from shock, she untied the cloth from his mouth.

"Ash...are you okay?" She said, her voice shaking, the salty liquid dripping from her cheeks and onto Ash's arm.

He emitted a quiet groan. "I wish I could say that I was," Ash said furtively, breathing hard. "But...I really need to rest." His eyelids drooped.

The redhead shook her head, caressing his callused hand in her smooth ones. "Please...no, Ash, don't fall asleep. Because if you do-," she choked on her words, unable to force them from her throat. "-y-you might never wake up."

"Trust me," Ash coughed, blood flying from his lips. "I will wake up..." His breathing slowed to a soft hum that faded out.

"NO!" Misty screamed, collapsing onto Ash's still body, sobbing out her woes. What had he done to deserve such punishment? Why had he been taken away from her? Tears splattered onto the ground, darkening the already drying blood.

As Team Rocket took flight, unable to witness the conclusion of their own crime, Misty lay there, warming Ash with her own body heat, her half-mast eyes staring blankly up at the sky.

As Team Rocket's balloon silhouetted the moon, Misty could've sworn she saw a star, falling from space, sparkling with unshed tears...burning a trail of memories into the sky.


	2. Resignation

**Lightning-Dono**: Wow, I have time to update this fanfic :D Happiness for all! This fanfic will be much longer than planned, so get ready!

**Answers to the Review **

**Soft Flame Matthias** – I know what you mean by that "rushed" feeling. I reread it, and I felt that I could've added just a bit more...just a little more to keep the reader waiting. But I was in horrible stress and I was kind of...typing. oO; What you said about Jessie and James was correct, and apparently, you've seen through the actual "plot". Jessie and James AREN'T murderous in my eyes either. Remember when I said James was speaking 'throatily' to her? James' voice isn't throaty...Butch's is. I will read your fanfic! In just a bit. :)

-

"That was just too easy," Jessie said, speaking to her partner with a hint of egotism in her voice, giving it a rather jaunty spark. "Finally we capture the Pikachu that has been rumored by many other branches of Team Rocket to be 'the best'! I must say, though, I am doubting it's powers if it failed to protect it's own master. Plus, beating those losers aren't so hard."

James gave her a menacing grin. "What did you expect, Cassidy? Pikachu was bound to capitulate to our power – isn't that what we wanted?"

The fake Jessie grimaced. "I was simply hoping for much more of a challenge. Finally we have gotten back at that nutty kid who foiled our plans of the breeding center! How we ever managed to get out of jail after losing so much hope and ambition...And now I'm sinking so low as to wear the wig of a woman whom I have detested for so long!" With one sweeping motion of her arm, she yanked off the red hair to reveal a sheet of golden blonde. "Ugh! The very image of this hideous uniform never fails to make me nauseous!"

The purple-haired man removed the wig to unveil a lump of teal hair that had grown wavy beneath the wig. "No need to be so dramatic, Cass," Butch said in a dismissive tone. "At any rate, I have tranquilized the Pikachu. He should be asleep until we reach the boss' place."

"And return this wretched balloon to Jessie and James!" Cassidy reminded her partner strictly. "Plus settle that bet with them that we could catch Pikachu. Hah! Someone owes me money!"

Butch nodded cheerfully. In the horizon, the sun was rising, shedding colors of fluorescent yellow, a pumpkin orange, and red...

The color of Ash's blood.

-

_I pray that he's still alive. It took me so long to get to him, just getting him to like me back. And the next thing I know...He's gone._ Misty had managed to lug the mangled body to the Pokemon center, driven by a futile hope that Nurse Joy could breathe life back into him. Why a deserted town had such a large Pokemon Center was beyond her, but it was exceptionally well kept for a town that appeared to have had a mini-apocalypse of doom hit it.

For the past thirty minutes of her life, she had reflected on everything she and Ash had gone through together, with the aid of others to guide them through their journey. But was it meant to end in such sudden means? Had the phases of love struck her simply struck her because she always needed to have her eyes set on something to keep her alive?

For the past thirty minutes of her life, she believes that she had never been so tense. Misty's eyes often followed the cracks between each carefully placed tile on the floor, leading her range of sight to the door that Ash was behind.

An Ash that in a state she would never want to see him in again. It was all too painful, just seeing a bullet lodged in his arm and gut, blood spouting freshly from those wounds...That image would be etched into the depiction of her life forever. A mental scar that refuses to disappear and eyes that would reflect the hurt contained for eternity. Already Misty felt like a shell – mere system of containing something while her feelings in a different dimension fed into her body.

Heels clicked hesitantly against the pale tiles of the Pokemon center, stopping before Misty with a sort of edginess. The red-head looked up uneasily to find Nurse Joy shaking her head slowly, eyes closed, tears clinging to her eyelashes like dew drops to a tender blade of grass in the morning.

"I'm sorry, Misty" the kindred nurse murmured softly, soft blue eyes seemingly more alive than usual. "He's gone."

-

"What do you have to keep staring at the sun for?" Cassidy interrogated irritably, slamming a hand on Butch's shoulder in what was supposed to be a comforting way. "It's detrimental to the state of your eyes."

The once tough man shook his head to relieve himself of the light-headed feeling he was getting.

"Oh, no, I was just..." He couldn't stop remembering sparks, thick smoke, gunfire...and the lifeblood of someone spilt before him. Never before had their partnership caused such a heinous crime. The writhing and screaming of someone that was innocent as something so dear as his best friend was taken away from him. For that moment, Butch felt like jumping clear out of the hot air balloon he was standing in. "I was just-,"

"Seriously now, haven't you ever seen a sunrise before? It's gorgeous, but not enough for you to stop fueling that fire so we keep floating!"

A sudden surge of hatred infected Butch's veins as he turned to face the overbearing woman standing before him with a sense of rebelliousness.

"Why don't you do it?" Butch replied bitterly, taking on a shiftless position in which he leaned on the edge of the hot air balloon coolly, watching Cassidy's reaction.

She looked rather outlandish, standing there, her hair in disarray from the wig she had worn before, fists clenching and unclenching, her breathing sounding rather forced instead of normal.

"What...did you just say?"

"I said 'Why don't you do it'? Surely you are capable of throwing another gallon of gasoline in that tank of ours..."

"Where are you trying to lead this?" Cassidy shrieked, her voice tainted with the pitch of hate. "Don't think you're going to get to me just by ordering me around! After all, it should be the OTHER way around!"

Butch sighed. "Am I the only one that thinks that you're just plain pushy?" His voice was rather blase.

"For your information, little man-," she paused to compare her height in relation to his. He had to be atleast two inches taller than her, but hopefully he wouldn't have the brains to figure that out. "-YOU were the one the boss addressed to complete the menial tasks! A man doesn't ask a lady to do such chores!"

"Well, this man does!" Butch shouted angrily. "Just because Giovanni is unjust to men, it's merely because he is still caught back in the old days where women were thought of before men in an area in which both are involved!"

"And that virtue still holds today!" The blonde turned away with disdain, refusing to turn and look her partner in the face. "And there's the boss' place. Let's land on that helicopter pad - I'm sure he wouldn't mind." Yanking on the rope to activate the landing sequence in silence, she realized how much she actually appreciated Butch's company.

As they landed, Cassidy spotted a clump of red hair emerging from the stairs that led down into the main building. Jessie. Butch carried a sleeping Pikachu to Jessie as though offering a sacrifice for an ancient ritual.

"I told you that we could capture Pikachu," Cassidy smirked, holding out her hand in a gesture of pure greed at Jessie's face. "Hand over the bills."

Jessie frowned at her rival's uninformed manner. "Too bad, you're not getting any."

"Why is that? Are you so dead poor that you just can't give us any money?"

James appeared by Jessie's side, staring at the Pikachu with a vague look of interest. "No. Jessie and I are quitting Team Rocket."


	3. Mute Confessions

**Lightning-Dono**: It continues! Many, _many_ transitions in this chapter!

**Answers to the Reviews **

**Soft Flame Matthias** – Yes, he's dead...but that's not the end of the line for Misty (Most luckily)! Jessie and James are pretty much quitting and in this chapter you'll know why. :) I'm on Spring Break right now! Actually...I just got on it, but that's okay! Thank you so much for the many compliments made!

**Inumaru12** – Yeh...oh no. I know! You'd think Jessie and James would be hospitalized after all of that damage done to them. xD

-

"Why the hell are you quitting?" Butch demanded, feeling rather grumpy.

"I'm sick and tired of seeing your face around here! The boss won't even pay us money, complains that our efforts aren't worth spit, and he's planned to fire us from the start!" Jessie screamed, sounding close to tears. "I'd rather die than pledge my allegiance to such a power-hungry pig!"

Cassidy sniggered. "Atleast now you'll be able to sleep without worrying that I'll creep into your living quarters and sneak poison into your water pitcher!" Wiping a trickle of sweat from her temple, she continued to laugh maniacally, much to Butch's displeasure.

"You know, it's feuds like this that get us no where, Jessie," James said quietly, slowly dragging her away. Where could he go now? All he had was the few cents of change clinking sadly in his sorry, thin wallet and a person whom he knew he certainly liked, but could possibly never get to. After all, since he quit, his parents would probably round him back home like a lost bull and force him into a marriage with Jessebell, the last person he ever wanted to be with.

"IN ADDITION TO THAT, WE HAD TO HAND MEOWTH OVER TO THAT MONSTROSITY THAT SITS IN HIS DAMN OFFICE ALL DAY!" Shrieked the red-haired woman. There, she had spoken her mind. This whole time all she had ever wanted was the fame and respect her boss had received thus far in the Pokemon world. Even though nothing she had done could satisfy her taste for such glory, Jessie eventually realized that she could never possibly climb her way up the corporate ladder when she couldn't even render a young boy helpless. Her partner was helpful, yes, but how could they keep working together if whenever she saw those emerald eyes she wanted to melt? Jessie loved pretending to be tough, arousing arguments that were needless and making-believe that her hair was the entire world to her. Now she'd made a cover for herself that no one could see beneath – all they knew that she had all her priorities wrong and was harder to break than a Cloyster shell. Somehow, she needed to pry that shell open and reveal herself, just to show everyone that her mind wasn't only consumed by self-centered thoughts. That the only reason she had persisted with Team Rocket was merely to continue standing by James' side. But quite frankly, she was tired of providing a hand to a team member who couldn't care less about a Pikachu that could thundershock them into oblivion. Their only bond to this mission was through Meowth, who had been taken away by the head honcho of the organization the moment they signed their resignation forms.

"Calm down, Jessie!" Cassidy exclaimed haughtily. "If you're not working for him anymore what does complaining do? Just leave! We'll keep the Pikachu." A malevolent glint shone in her eyes for a split second. "How immature," she snorted. "All because he did you no favors...The boss helps no one, you have to help yourself."

Butch felt the need to interrupt this chain of insulting. "Favors go a long way to them, two failures who can't even keep a few kids from prying at their nerves. They need all he help they can get."

"That's true, but look at them. Where did they expect to go with Team Rocket? As of now, they've just left each other as partners. They're already helpless with each other, and now without...?"

"Why do you even care?"

"I've known Jessie for a long time now," Cassidy replied shortly, observing her fingernails, even though the last thing to even come to her mind was the fact that four of them were chipped. "It isn't a matter of caring, but more a matter of curiosity."

"Curiosity killed the cat."

-

The walls were splashed with black paint, enough to cover an entire planet had the layer been thin enough. A desk lamp that shone brightly at the stack of papers was the only thing that lit up the room. The only thing Meowth could concentrate on was the steadily rising temperature of the room, other than the fact that a middle-aged man was running his rough fingers up and down his back.

"Perfect," the man muttered, an aura of evil trailing the end of this word. "I do believe I can trust you to be with this group and cooperate. Your history very much points to them."

Meowth blew a raspberry. "Just make sure they aren't idiotically goofy and have their eyes set on world domination, not what they'll be eating in the next few seconds."

"Don't be such a hypocrite, Meowth," the man growled. "I've signed you up with a team that's very fitting for your nature."

The Pokemon grinned in the eerie shadows of the room, allowing the man to fondle the scruff of his neck with dancing fingers. "Who are they?" The fingers curled and clawed his back.

"They are a duo who have been serving their purpose quite well. A team I have been able to thoroughly trust, most unlike your former friends who had their ambition scared out of them the moment they caught air of someone beating them to their goal."

Meowth's mouth went dry. Suddenly, he knew who these people that he was about to be sent off to were. "Is it who I think it'll be?" His voice was barely above a small squeak, almost nonexistent.

Giovanni pressed a button for the intercom to go on live. "Will Cassidy and Butch please report to the boss' office? This request is immediate." A satisfied grin consumed his gaunt visage, making him seem all the more threatening. Pearly teeth gleamed in the minimal rays of sunlight shining through the partially closed blinds. "They'll suit you so much more than those two failures you've had to cope with for so many years. Never again will you be forced to fail with them."

"But they already have a Raticate!" Meowth pointed out, in hopes set way too high that he could be placed into another partnership. He certainly didn't have doubts that the group he would be sent to would abuse him. The images brought into his mind weren't exactly ones that he fancied, either, unless one day he really wanted to be clubbed for being off-task.

Giovanni removed a curl-ended pipe from his mouth and heaved a mouthful of smoke on Meowth's general direction. "Raticate? No, no, no. They sent THAT Raticate shipped off to Lavender Town's Pokemon graveyard the moment it lost for the hundredth time." The feline Pokemon felt a chill roll down his spine, making him visibly shudder. "I must say that this group could do with some anger management lessons, perhaps from my own tutor." The boss shook the pipe carelessly with a finger, trickling a thin layer of ash onto his shining desk.

The sound of his own breathing mingled with the sound of acids sloshing wildly in his stomach was all Meowth could hear.

-

Ash was dead. No, she couldn't believe it. She _wouldn't_ believe it. How could she consume the fact that a best friend that had just told her that he enjoyed her company days before had passed away in such a bloodthirsty vie for power? Misty cursed Team Rocket's persistence. They couldn't have had their sights on any other Pokemon, could they have? Only Pikachu would do, and they would even take a single life for it, a life that could've helped the world evolve from the mess it is now into something beautiful. Team Rocket's goals were ridiculous, Misty concluded, her heart pounding in her chest like an tiger running through a jungle.

Misty's life would never be the same. Now, she would no longer have to walk roads that were unknown to her with the aid of two companions. Instead, she would tread paths that were all too familiar with dormant tears held inside and resting Pokemon strapped to her back.

"He hadn't done anything wrong," the confused girl mused, giving the gray trees dark glares. "And to pass on in such a horrible place...it's so lonely here." She shuddered, hugging her backpack to her tightening chest. Her fists clenched tightly as she trudged down the dusty road aimlessly. Invariably, if she continued this behavior, Team Rocket would eventually show up to steal her Pokemon and ambush her already tender mind some more.

"I don't have Togetic, I don't have Ash...not even Brock." _Brock was such a coward, fleeing the scene the moment gunfire entered the set. He doesn't care about Ash, does he? He only cares for his pitiful life and those supposedly lovely girls he has yet to see. I can't blame him...it was scary. But how many times will he regret the loss of his friend, a friend he wasn't even there for in his last moments? _

"May is at home with her brother, visiting her parents..." _Ash was supposed to meet her at the Petalburg Pokemon Center next week...I don't know how she'll feel about this. They argued like two lovers, like Ash and I used to back at the beginning of their journey. Even so, I didn't view her as a rival – she's just so nice...I know she'll cry...Maybe it's best if she doesn't know._ Just the idea sent tears to her eyes, but she stubbornly wiped them away with the back of her hand. _No...it's better to know than to be clueless. I suppose I'll go tell her. _

"But I have Gyrados..." _He's too large to come out and comfort me, but atleast he can provide me some confidence for now. It feels awful to be alone..._Misty faced the sky. "Where are you now, Ash? If you can hear me, I want to tell you something." All of the musty air around her gathered into her lungs, fueling her for something big; dramatic. But nothing came to her mind. She just couldn't say anything, despite the fact that the streets were empty and the only person in the radius of two miles was Nurse Joy and herself. Her knees buckled, allowing her to collapse weakly to the ground. There, she stared at the ravaged, deserted plaza smeared with crimson from the night before.

"I love you." Was all she could utter.


End file.
